Deputy Shoots Man To Death Police: Victim Lunged With Knife At Officer

July 16, 1991|By KAREN GOLDBERG, Staff Writer

Robert Leslie Bush made two visits to Dina Hudel`s house on Sunday night. The first time, he was angered by a family fight and was looking for a phone to call his sister.

The second time, he had a knife in one hand and a half-empty bottle of rum in the other, Hudel said. Bush, 19, was rambling about suicide and claimed to be tripping on LSD.

A Palm Beach County sheriff`s deputy, called to the scene, shot Bush three times as Bush lunged at him with a knife, officials said. Bush died at Delray Community Hospital three hours later.

``It`s so unbelievable,`` said Hudel, who lives on Neros Drive west of Lantana. ``I could hear him out back saying (to the deputies) how sorry he was. Then I saw him go after the officer. They were right in what they did.``

Deputies received a call from the home Bush shared with his mother and sister on Carthage Circle North, about three blocks away from Hudel`s home, just before midnight, Ferrell said. The caller warned that Bush was armed and was going to kill himself.

Bush had returned to Hudel`s home, about 1 1/2 hours after his previous visit. After talking to deputies for a few minutes, Bush jumped over a fence into the neighbor`s yard.

``At that point, he and Combs wound up on the same side of the fence,`` Ferrell said. ``He was swinging the steak knife in an arc. Combs tried to get him to put the knife down.

``A K-9 deputy tried to lift the dog over the fence. Bush took a swipe at the K-9 deputy but missed. Then he went after Combs,`` Ferrell said.

Combs fired three shots at Bush.

``When the cops pulled up, Robert just freaked out,`` Hudel said. ``He was pretty well (drunk) and was talking about how his life was messed up, how people would be better off without him.``

Hudel said that before the deputies` arrival she had tried to persuade Bush to calm down and spend the night in the spare bedroom. Bush declined, Hudel said, because he seemed afraid of Hudel`s husband, Billy Conlon.

``If he would have come into the house and not been so afraid of Billy, he would be alive today,`` Hudel said. ``He would have one heck of a hangover, but he would be alive.``

Bush had been living on Carthage Circle North for about a month, neighbors said. They often saw him working in the yard and helping out around the house.

He worked part time as a bus boy at the Florida Crab House in Boynton Beach, said Hudel, a waitress at the restaurant.

Tommy Isola, manager of the Florida Crab House, said Bush ``never said a word`` when he was working.